


Looking Down

by captainangua



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005), Supernatural
Genre: Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Destiel - Freeform, F/M, Gen, M/M, Multi, Superwho, rare attempt at crossover, rose x ten implied
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-04
Updated: 2014-02-04
Packaged: 2018-01-11 03:05:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1167895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captainangua/pseuds/captainangua
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor finds a real angel to try and understand.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Looking Down

**Author's Note:**

> I am not someone who gets behind crossovers, but I just really love these two ok.  
> So this is a 9.12 for Cas and a Tenth Doctor who could be basically anywhere post-Doomsday.

"...A genuine, bona fide Angel of the judeo-christian mythological tradition." The man in the blue suit whistled to himself in apparent bafflement. "Blimey, that's a new one. I've never met an angel before, Well, not a real one, and not one that wasn't trying to kill me... Hello, I'm the Doctor, it really is a pleasure to meet you."  
As the strange man held out a hand to him, Cas was reminded briefly of the first time he'd met Sam Winchester. Someone so eager to see him, someone he wasn't yet sure how he was meant to react to.  
He shook the hand offered out to him.  
"The Doctor. That doesn’t mean you hold a doctorate, does it?"  
"Well," the man, the Doctor, said as he rifled a hand up through his spiked hair, "not that I remember, no."  
The way the Doctor drew out the last word was interesting. This was a man who genuinely did, as he Cas had heard people say, enjoy the sound of his own voice. But man… no that wasn’t right.  
"You're not human either, are you?"  
"Why'd you say that?"  
“You see my wings.”  
“Well, I can hear the Ood singing, so I should hope so. Are they alright? They look a little… battered.”  
Cas narrowed his eyes.  
"You have two hearts, but no soul, no human soul. Your soul can change."  
"Doesn't everyone's?"  
"Not like yours has. A human soul is... very different."  
The Doctor smiled slightly, and moved over to the park bench, choosing to perch like an overgrown child on the back of the metal bench instead of the seat. "A human soul. What's that then, exactly? I've always wondered, what is it making them so unique... do you have one, Castiel? A human soul?"  
Cas stood there dumbly. It wasn't something he wanted to think about now, it wasn't exactly a question he knew the answer to any longer. He'd been human, for a time. Had that changed him somehow?  
Or had change come to him before his episode of humanity?  
"Hmmm," the Doctor said, as though Cas had actually answered him instead of simply standing there. Then he chuckled slightly. "Angels. Angels who wear ties." He paused a moment. Castiel wondered again if he could be dangerous.  
"It's funny, I heard the stories the humans told, I've always known all about their gods and religion. But me who believes everything, I never took the time to look up when they told me to. I suppose, if I'm honest," he was murmuring now, as though a little ashamed, "I was always too busy looking down. Thinking I was the God among them..."  
"But you're not a god. You're not human. But you’re not a god." Cas sat down beside him and peered into the Doctor's eyes, trying to see more.  
"Are you not from this world at all?"  
"Very good!" Now the man really smiled again, all the way up to the crinkles around his eyes, the only part of him that showed his age. "Yup. A real live alien, that's me."  
"Aliens." Cas nodded slightly, processing the thought slowly. Strange. Apparently he'd also been too busy looking down to take the time to listen to look up, to look out. Conceding that this man was from another planet would again mean acknowledging more that he didn't know, that God hadn't known. Or that God had never said.  
"You don't even come from this Earth. And yet you care for its people. Why, Doctor?"  
The man took a deep breath. "I suppose, because I've seen all the future's humanity had ahead of it. It's impressive, it really is. Great big empires spanning all the way across galaxies. Just brilliant."  
Cas shifted on the seat for a moment. Futures for humanity, which hadn't included any apocalypses. If the Doctor was telling the truth, which Cas felt he was, then Fate had been wrong, Michael had been wrong, they really all had been so very wrong...  
"...and mainly I suppose, because of the people themselves. Human souls, just like you said. Individuals that just shine for you, that make a long life brighter all of a sudden. Just... I dunno, they change things, though they shouldn't really be able to. And I suppose you can't help but love some of them for it."  
Snapping from his increasingly private reverie, the Doctor nudged Cas sharply in his ribs. "What about you, Angel Castiel? Why do you care?"  
Cas thought of all the families and children and good people he had ever watched or shepherded, he thought of the man who’d died on a cross in Jerusalem with a crown of thorns on his brow. But now, though he could remember the scene so perfectly, the man now looked like Dean. And the billions of other good faces he could recall all had Dean’s green eyes.  
"... I suppose because, they do shine, humans. So many of them. They feel so much. They hurt so much, they love so much." He straightened his coat and looked out at the park. "And they die too soon."  
The Doctor stayed looking at him, a small, sad smile creeping over his face and Cas began to wonder how old he was. "Yes they do. Sometimes the thought of spending just one short life with just one of them is..."  
"...tempting."  
"Yes." The Doctor cocked his head sideways, suddenly a curious child again. "Would you do it, Castiel? Give up angel-ing for God and live out life with a mortal?"  
Cas of course had already rebelled against heaven for the human he had chosen. Had already accepted his humanity, yet been forced ultimately to reject it.  
"There isn't a lot of purpose to that decision unless he would have me."  
"Ah. Of course not. But if he would?"  
“…I. I am not sure if I would know how to.”  
Being human had been… strange. There had been so much less of everything, so much more to everything. He could taste a sandwich and yet not know how it was formed. He had understood so much more about people, and yet he had been left with so many more questions. He had known what it was to indulge in the lusts of the flesh and spend a night with someone, and yet he still had no name for what he felt when Dean looked at him. And he still had no notion of why Dean kept looking.  
“I’ve loved humanity for centuries Castiel, in all the ways you can, as so many different people. And I don’t think anyone knows how that works yet. That’s why I’m still interested anyway.”  
“It can be…frightening though. Frightening not to know, not to be certain.”  
“Sometimes certainty’s worse. For instance I’m certain that right now in another universe, there’s a woman I’ve left behind, that I won’t ever see again, that I can’t ever see again. That frightens me.”  
Before Cas was given a moment to form a reply, the Doctor leapt up to his feet with a speed that was startling. "It really has been brilliant meeting you Castiel. I hope we bang into each other again one day.”  
Cas stood as he found his hand was about to be shaken vigorously once more.  
"Got to be off again. Always running, me." He was turning away now, starting to quick march away from Cas down the empty path.  
"Doctor. Would you?"  
He spun back on his shoes to face Cas again. “Would I what?”  
"Would you trade a human soul, a human life, for your own?"  
The man smiled and started walking again. “Can’t!”  
Which hadn’t answered Cas’ question at all.


End file.
